// Overseas travel blog

I woke up and decided that Sunday was the day for another big run. This time I went the other direction, towards Treptower Park. It was a great morning for it, and plenty of others were out pacing along the Spree. The later schedule of everything here is great – it means I can sleep in on a Sunday and still go for a run in the morning, without the sense of panic that ‘Shit! It’s already late! The day has been wasted!’ and is much more comfortable than a 4:30am wake up call to drive down to the coast for a surf.

This time I found a huge loop along the river, past Treptower Park, over a bridge, through some parkland, and to join back up with the park and finally back over the bridge to home. After 45 minutes or so, I came across the big Allianz building that I see from a distance at my train station. ‘Strange..’ I thought – two Allianz buildings! I had only ever known one, but it was in the opposite direction. I continued on and exited from the Parkland onto the roadside. After another ten minutes it clicked. I looked over my shoulder to see the shrunken Fernsehturm in the distance. Behind me. Complete wrong direction, and a very long way in the wrong direction at that. So I 180ed and started back. After a while, my stomach was grumbling for breakfast, and I had had enough. Luckily, thanks to google maps, there was a station within 300 metres and I took the easy route to jump on the S bahn home. I was thankful that I always run with small change or my train ticket for that exact reason! As a reward to myself for a good run - ‘Gut gemacht’ – I shouted myself a coffee and some wifi at a café, and booked myself a trip to Vienna.

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​​Later in the day I met up with one of the girls from the course, and her two Italian friends who were visiting – Elisa 1 and Elisa 2 – at Mauer Park. I snagged myself the most delicious fish in bread and a nice glass of white for the bargain price of €2. We then spent the afternoon strolling along Bernauer Straße where there is an outside museum of sorts, and you can read all about the history of the Germans that lived in no man’s land of the Berlin Wall, who were neither on the East nor the West. Obviously, it wasn’t a great situation to be in when your apartment was smack bang in the middle of the patrolled area, and videos and audio stories capture the day to day life of the people beautifully. You can even watch old footage of people jumping out of their windows from the 4th floor, into the net of waiting fireman below, and fleeing on foot with suitcase in tow, or in many cases being carried injured to a nearby ambulance. We made it to the Museum and went to go in as well, but it was closed for the day and so I decided to call it and head home.

I jumped on a bus, and then off at the nearest U-bahn station. The sun had just set, and I moved my bag away from my body, to the back, and took off my jumper so I could throw a cardigan on underneath. Better. I redressed in my second layer and then tugged on my bag. Immediately I knew if felt lighter, and two seconds to check the contents confirmed what I’d suspected. See ya later wallet. I took a quick glance around the busy station, and did a darting scan of the floor but to no avail. ‘Here we go again,’ I thought. My heartbeat remained slow and steady, and I began planning my next move in my head. Call bank, cancel cards. Go to Alexander Platz, find police station. Call travel insurance company. Been there, done that, no stress.

A couple of hours later, after locking my cards on netbank, I was on the phone to Commonwealth to organise a new card: identity confirmed, ‘How may I help you?’.‘I’m in Germany and have had my wallet stolen. I would like to cancel my credit card.’‘Sometimes cards show up, would you like me to suspend use or cancel the card permanently?’‘Cancel it permanently please.’

Beep..Beep..Beep. No credit left, and the phone cut out.

I jumped onto Netbank and confirmed that my card had been cancelled. I also retrieved my second travel money card from my stash at home, so I could check the card number. I’d put a temporary lock both travel cards on Netbank, but I could now reactivate one of them once I confirmed which one was at home. At least I wasn’t without any cards. Frustratingly, after a couple of goes, Netbank wouldn’t allow me to reactivate online, so I decided that the easiest way would be to get back in touch with the Bank by phone. I borrowed GHL’s home phone, and was soon connected to a second consultant. After re-verifying my identity, I explained what had happened with the previous call to his colleague.

‘So I know my credit card is cancelled, but I now need help reactivating my travel card.’ The man then confirmed that, actually, not even one but both my travel cards had also been cancelled. ‘Oh, and also a new credit card has been sent out to your address.’‘Excuse me? I never requested that.’‘But your file says you had your wallet stolen, and requested new cards.’‘Well that’s funny. The start of your phone service tells me all calls are recorded. Please, check the recording and you can hear EXACTLY what I said. And it was NOT that. Which address in Australia by the way? Oh, my old address? Great. I don’t live there anymore. Also, I don’t live in Australia right now! By the way, I don’t have time and money for this call. How about you call me back so I’m not charged.’

‘We can do that. Please go onto our Facebook page and request that they call you there. I will flag it as urgent with the web team.’

So onto the web and within 20 minutes, cue third phone conversation. This entailed the consultant informing me that the cancellations were all irreversible and that she would organise to send cards to Germany. ‘Although if you choose, we can post it to a relative in Australia instead.’ Why would I want to do this? Well, because it is sent free of charge, and then the relative could post it to me in Germany. That is, should she have to post them internationally, I would be charged $20. To which I told her I sure as hell hope I won’t be charged for your colleague’s mistake!​So an emergency cash transfer to Western Union, and a sleepless night later, here we are with ein paar Euro to my name and zero functional cards to withdraw money. Needless to say I’m not thrilled with the Commonwealth Bank right about now, and have to just sit tight and play the waiting game.